Color Cue: Discovering your Archetype

After discovering your “True Colors” it is time to discover Your Archetype!

When I was first studying color and style, the four seasons approach had just come into vogue. Clients of mine who had read one of the many books and articles drawing on the system of seasonal color would frequently announce happily, “I’m a Spring!” or inform me gravely that they were a Winter.

I loved the four seasons approach, but to me, it was incomplete. How could you confuse the rusty brick and off-white of an Antique Winter with the bright blue-red and alabaster of a Classic Winter, or mistake the deep teals and burgundies of a Renaissance Summer for the sky blues and gentle violets of an Iridescent Summer? Along with every color theorist I knew, I could see significant variations within each season, subtypes whose color choices differed from one another, often quite dramatically.

For example, both the Vital Spring and the Tawny Spring partake of the youthful, vigorous, playful energies of their signature season. But a Vital Spring’s Archetype is the Prom Queen. She’s born to be the center of attention, the popular girl, the one who pulls a party together, and her palette glistens like a burgeoning flowerbed, with its clear pink, kelly green, and blueberry. Tawny Spring is a Maverick, a quirky self-starter who’s usually listening to the beat of her own distant drummer. She may not even show up at the prom, and if she does, she may bring that drummer with her and dance to an entirely different rhythm than everybody else! Her palette expresses another side of spring, with its mossy greens and woodsy browns. Both are Springs—but their Archetypes help define the precise colors and styles that are right for them.

Because your Archetype tells you about both your coloring and your personality, you can identify it both by looking at your palette and by thinking about the kind of person you are. Either way, identifying your Archetype will help you recognize the colors, accessories, and other style choices that are best designed to reveal your personality. So, I will be posting updates on the 24 Archetypes so that you can check out the different “flavors” found under each season and see which one expresses you specifically. (And if you’re curious, identify your friends, colleagues, and loved ones as well!)

2 Responses to “Color Cue: Discovering your Archetype”

I love your book “Color Your Style” which I recently purchased (I live in Australia) and have identified myself as a Floral Spring. I spent hours and hours determining what I thought various friends and family would be also.
I will look forward to the updates on Archtypes!